Monday, 22 August 2011

Three years of blogging - top posts

The first post on this blog was made three years ago on the 16th of August 2008. At that time, I marvelled that "No-one has tooted a horn aggressively at me, no-one has driven their car at me, no-one has shouted at me in the street in an aggressive way."

We've now lived here for four years, and this remains very nearly true. Unfortunately, I had one very minor tooting incident earlier this year - just enough to remind me that The Netherlands isn't perfect. However, that such incidents are so rare as only one in the four years we've lived here remains a very good part of why it is that the Dutch find cycling to be a pleasant experience, and why people here cycle as much as they do.

World's safest roads - Dutch and British roads vie for the position of the safest in the world, but the way the safety levels have been achieved couldn't be more different, and for cyclists and pedestrians this is a very important difference.

Mark didn't get a penny from any of the TV companies who used his video. I get about €20 per year from the advertising on the blog. This is the result of many thousands of hours of work by both of us, free for you to read. Those who in the past have complained about the advertising, and those who've asked me for hundreds of Euros to use a photo they've taken of me when racing (an offer which, naturally, I turned down), might like to consider this. Writing this stuff is hardly a license to print money. Please don't be too surprised that we use the blog occasionally to advertise our businesses, Dutch Bike Bits and Hembrow Cycling Holidays. While writing the blog is enjoyable, we do have to make a living.

24 comments:

Thank you both very much for you work writing this blog for the past three years. Though I have not known of it for that long, I do know that it has become one of the most influential cycling blogs, if not themost influential, in the English-speaking world. Its effects are plain to see. Long may it continue.

As I can see reading other cycling blogs, this blog DEFINITELY IS most influential in the world.David and Mark, thank you very much for great stories. It's a pity I did not know about this a few years ago when I was deciding where to settle for the rest of my life.

Congratulations and thank you on the third anniversary of the blog. This has been a truly fantastic reference for my work as a transport planner in Australia. I have sent several of your blogs up the line here where I work, particularly those to do with bike parking at train stations, and I think they have helped to shape some important decisions, or at least some thinking on sustainable transport issues.

I really, really appreciate your efforts and am typically amazed at the high quality of nearly every post, no matter what length it is. Nearly everything about them is great - they're succinct, the videos are good (though the camera-mikes could be muffled to filter out the wind noise as this gets a bit annoying on the longer vids), as are the pictures and external links (e.g. the Dutch Cycling Union Fietsersbond).

When I saw David on the videos on the 2011 Australian Dutch Cycling I thought: "he's the cycling equivalent of Doctor Leete in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward".

Yes David - although I've left maybe two comments in total, and am not what you'd call an 'activist' (or even much of a cyclist - I mostly walk places), I do think this stuff is very important and I have found your blog immensely useful.

Each time I read it I think how much unpaid work you've put into it. Even though I'm not totally averse to getting stuck in to journal articles and reports, there is no other way that I would ever have realised what the true situation in the Netherlands is - I'd have been stuck with my personal experience of the rubbish infrastructure in the UK.

Congratulations on three years of blogging David! A great job, because I know how much time and effort just one blog post takes. My own role is minor. To put it in perspective: of the 558 posts published so far I only wrote 29 and contributed (one way or another) to 38 other posts. So no wonder I still see it as your blog!

I didn’t quite remember when I started following your blog but it turned out to have been in the autumn of 2008. I stumbled upon it by accident, but I was hooked right away. It was during the Christmas holiday of 2008 that I got the idea for my first cycling related video. After writing (sort of) a script I filmed my commute on the very first working day of 2009. The first time I was mentioned in a blog post was with this video of the ‘long commute’.

That three of the posts I contributed to landed in the all time top 20 means a lot to me. I find a lot of reward in the appreciation of many people. Meeting some of the followers (even from the other side of the world) has been very special. I have to thank you for being such an inspiration (to many people) and for giving me the opportunity to join you on your blog that is so –rightfully- well thought of by many readers.

Thank you for this blog. I use it quite often as a reference and I know how hard it sometimes can be to keep up the writing. Writing regularly is part of the success, I guess. It made me set a bookmark at least :-)

I keep thinking that you've lived in the Netherlands longer. I moved to Worthing four years ago and my voyage of cycling discovery in a new area has been slightly different to yours :-) My plus points were discovering other people locally and then nationally and internationally that had the same outlook on bicycle riding as me and finding a wife that puts up with it all. Thanks to you and Mark for the continual food for thought. Keep it up!

Thank you, both David and Mark, for your excellent work on A View from a Cycle Path. Your wise words and inspiring videos are helping to promote genuine debate and discussion here in the UK, and whats more allows us all to take a peak in to life just across the North Sea which is always a wonderful and absorbing journey.

For anyone like myself who rode though the “dark ages” of cycling in the UK it was wonderful to discover that you were not alone in thinking that cycling was actually a means of transportation.

I think it was that chap in Copenhagen who got there first but it is to “A view from the cycle path” that discerning readers come for the authoritative, informed, articulate, and sometimes downright awe-inspiring take on how we should be organising the places where we live.

If, in the UK and elsewhere, we are finally starting to get our act together it is in no small part down to your blog which has inspired many people to get involved and do something about it.

Thanks for this blog. It is an inspiring read for all cycling enthuasiast around the globe.

Through this blog I've seen infrastructure solutions that are way beyond the imagination of our local traffic engineers. If only the same people who designed Dutch cycling infrastructure were around to do the same for all other countries.

Your blog has been truly eye-opening. It has led me and many other people in the Toronto Cyclists Union to know exactly what to advocate for. And to be able to show people videos of what proper cycle infrastructure looks like.

Thank you David and Mark for all your hard work. I enjoy this blog and videos. I often send links of your posts to my friends.

I am the proud owner of a David Hembrow original bike basket. More than once I have been stopped and asked, "Where did you get that beautiful basket?" I hope to one day go back to NL...this time to take a Hembrow Cycling Holiday.

I've learned a lot from reading this blog (and before that, from reading your posts to the Cambridge Cycling Campaign mailing list).

One thing you could do that would make it even easier to read your blog would be to change the RSS feed so that it contains the full text of the post. At the moment it just contains part of the first paragraph. (But maybe you need people to click through to the actual blogspot page in order to get the advertising revenue?)

Happy anniversary, David. I'd like to say that probably owing to your blog, I moved to the Netherlands a few months ago for the cycling (and also the people) and have no intention of moving back; while no country is perfect, it's very close. Gefeliciteerd en dank dat u me hebt overgehaald.

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